We’re adding two rooms onto our house. It’s something we’ve talked about doing for several years now, but haven’t quite gotten around to doing. Construction officially started this fall, and sometimes I think we’re crazy for taking on this project when we have so much going on in our lives right now. We’ve got seven weeks to finish two new rooms before baby arrives. The new rooms...

It’s probably expected that our baby would have pint-sized attire from our own bar (and he does, and there will be more), but we didn’t expect to receive baby clothes from other bars. A few weeks ago, a package arrived at the bar addressed to Dave. Inside we found a note from bartender Red at Kelly’s Westport Inn in Kansas City, along with a Kelly’s-logo’d baby T-shirt and a onesie...

I spent this weekend at an amazing bed and breakfast only twenty minutes away from Lawrence, one that I had no idea even existed. After all, why would I stay at a B&B that’s so close to home? My friend Jenn put together a “work weekend” for some of her blogging buddies, and I was lucky enough to be included in this group. A weekend at an amazing place, with smart ladies I could learn a lot...

I’ve always loved this picture. It’s of my grandmotherâ€” my dad’s momâ€” back in her younger days. (Not the grandma who just passed away.) My aunt emailed a copy of it to me the other day. She thinks I look like grandma. I hope so; I think she’s pretty. I love looking at old family pictures. Over the past few years, I’ve borrowed photo albums from various grandparents and scanned...

My dog is not a dog that whines. She barely even barked for the first several months she lived with us- in fact, we wondered if she even knew how to bark. (We regret wondering that now. She barks a lot.) I woke from a dead sleep one night because she was laying on the bed, whining. I finally figured out that Dave had come home from work, Lucy wanted to go downstairs to see him and for some reason she thought she...

Baby’s room is starting to overflow with clothes, toys, blankets and other baby stuff, thanks to the generosity of our friends and family and my inability to stay away from baby clothes. There really are cute baby boy clothesâ€” who knew?! Some of the very first gifts the little pickle received last summer are very special to us. We spend a lot of time and money at our favorite hardware store, the local...

The Lawrence social media community had another great tweetup tonight! If you’ve never heard of or been to a tweetup, it’s basically a social gathering of Twitter usersâ€” a way for people who talk to each other online to get together offline and socialize in person. The first tweetup I went to was in the summer of 2009, after I’d been using Twitter for a few months. I kept telling my friend...

Here’s a life lesson, people: be nice. I spent twelve years working in the world of college financial aid. As you can imagine, I encountered a lot of angry, upset and frustrated students and parents. And I can sympathizeâ€” student loans are a volatile and complicated subject that brings out the worst in people. However, the people I spent the most time with and bent over backwards to help? The ones who were...

Boots are one of my very favorite things, and boots are one of the only things I like about cold weather. I haven’t been able to wear any of my regular shoes since sometime in July due to the excessive swelling in my feet. On the positive side, it was a reason to buy new flip flops and a couple other pairs of slip-on shoes. But now that it’s cold and rainy outside, I miss my boots. Especially my black...

My maternal grandmother passed away last week, and the funeral was held on Friday. At the end of the Catholic mass, one of my grandma’s wishes was honored as flowers were passed out to all her kids, grandkids and great-grandkids. Each of her 12 kids and stepkids took a turn standing at the front of the church to receive a red rose, and they in turn beckoned their own kids and grandkids to the front to receive...